Latest news with #statefirms
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Breakingviews - China applies broken mop to housing mess
HONG KONG, Aug 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Cleaning up a big messy house requires a big mop and great determination. China needs both. Its excess real estate inventory has risen to a record. This suggests that piecemeal efforts to tackle the problem are not working. It explains why Beijing may overrun a 15-year ban and allow key state firms to go back into the property market. Since May last year, Beijing has rolled out a raft of measures to stop what is now a five-year housing slump. These include mobilising local governments to acquire unsold homes from distressed developers and convert them into public housing. Progress has been slow. The size of completed but unsold residential properties rose 6.5% in the year to the end of June to 408 million square metres, per government data. And that may not mark the final extent of it: residential properties under construction amounted to 441 million square metres in the same period. Regulators are now mulling whether to wield yet another little mop. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported, opens new tab on August 14 that Beijing is considering asking some of the biggest state-owned enterprises, as well as managers of problem assets such as Cinda Asset Management ( opens new tab, to join the clean-up. The move almost sounds like a reversal of a directive announced in 2010 to bar most of the 100 or so central government-owned SOEs from taking on real estate businesses. These state behemoths, from financial conglomerate China Resources to telecom operator China Mobile ( opens new tab, are financially much stronger than most cash-strapped local governments. They sit on over 90 trillion yuan ($12.5 trillion) of assets, and their combined net profit topped 2.6 trillion last year, according to state asset manager Sasac. It is unlikely that Beijing will allow its most important firms to take on too much property risk. The central bank last year set up a 300 billion yuan ($42 billion) facility to help local governments acquire unoccupied apartments. Only 6% has been drawn so far, per Bloomberg. That indicates that the bulk of the inventory is financially unattractive. Allowing state firms to come to the same conclusion will do little, if anything, to help tidy up.
CNA
08-07-2025
- Business
- CNA
Pakistan approves four potential bidders for national airline PIA
The Pakistani government said on Tuesday it had approved four parties to potentially bid for a stake in Pakistan International Airlines. The sale is seen as a test of Pakistan's ability to shed loss-making state firms and meet the conditions of a $7 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. It would be the country's first major privatisation in nearly two decades. The country's privatisation ministry said that the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation had also approved the transaction structure for the Roosevelt Hotel, New York.
Arab News
19-06-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan draws five potential buyers for national air carrier
ISLAMABAD: In its efforts to sell its struggling national airline, Pakistan has received expressions of interest from five parties, including business groups and a military-backed firm, the Privatization Ministry said on Thursday. The bids were submitted ahead of a June 19 deadline to acquire up to 100 percent of Pakistan International Airlines, which has accumulated over $2.5 billion in losses in roughly a decade. Still, following a major restructuring, it posted its first operating profit in 21 years in the year through June 2024. The sale is seen as a test of Pakistan's ability to shed loss-making state firms and meet conditions of a $7 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. It would be the country's first major privatization in nearly two decades. Eight parties submitted their expressions of interest, but only five of them provided documents of qualification, the ministry said in a statement.
